Sailor Moon Season 6
by Trista's Timely Tales
Summary: It’s Serena’s wedding day, but, as she stands by the shore looking out at the ocean and contemplating her future, a time lost menace once again stirs from its resting place in the shadows, bringing with it a very uncertain future.
1. Episode 1 'The Wish For A Bright Future'

**Sailor Moon Season 6**

**Episode #1: "The Wish For A Bright Future"**

**Summary:** It's Serena's wedding day, but, as she stands by the shore looking out at the ocean and contemplating her future, a time lost menace once again stirs from its resting place in the shadows, bringing with it a very uncertain future.

—-

**Starts off with the intro sequence, then Serena's voice...**

—-

"It all seems so sudden, Luna..." Serena says as she stares out at the ocean from the bench she sits on, seemingly at peace. "Isn't that strange?"

The day is beautiful, graced by a clear sky. A slightly warm breeze carries the quiet murmur of the ocean and the cries of birds.

"Strange?" Luna repeats. Serena had not spoken in some time and Luna had almost drifted off into a catnap in her comfortable perch on a nearby tree limb. The soft voice brings her focus back into crystal clear alertness. "What do you mean, Serena?" she asks thoughtfully, noticing that her friend's gaze is still locked on some far away point in the horizon.

It takes a moment for Serena to respond, and Luna wonders for an instant if her reply had even been heard. "It's just..." she sighs, "...it seems like I've known him forever..." she pauses, and Luna thinks she can almost see the weight on her friends shoulders... She had seen it before of course, but today... today it seems more evident than she could ever remember. "When I was a princess and he was..." Serena continues, "we where going to be married then, and after all that we've been through!" She turns abruptly to face Luna, tears almost falling from her eyes, "He died Luna. I thought I'd lost him, and..." she pushes herself up and turns away, looking up into the sky "...and that felt familiar too..." her words trail off a little, a sad quality settling into her voice. "...and now I have him back, and we've had a year together." She turns back to look at Luna, frustration showing in her eyes. "We've known each other for two life times, and I love him Luna, I love him so much..." she looks away once more, leaving her thought unfinished.

"And it feels sudden, and you think it's strange that it feels like that," Luna provides in her typical understanding manner, thinking she knows where this is going and deciding to let Serena vent a little before offering her counsel.

"Yeah," Serena pouts a little, the pieces coming together in her mind as she speaks. "I mean a big part of me is so happy because this is all I ever wanted Luna. What I've dreamt of..." she pauses for a while; she had not given voice to these thoughts before, yet in this moment, she finds she can't keep them inside any longer "...and another part, it feels like it's happening too fast, that it's sudden." Her eyes gaze out to the ocean. "Everything's going right Luna, finally, so why do I feel like this?"

Luna looks a little surprised, wishing Serena would look at her. "Have you ever felt that way before?" she asks quietly.

"Yeah, a lot recently..." she replies, closing her eyes as a question comes to her mind. "Luna, do you ever wonder about destiny?" Serena looks back over at Luna questioningly.

"Destiny?" Luna appears puzzled, and she sits up, not used to Serena asking her such things.

"Like, do we really have a choice in things? Destiny." Serena looks at Luna, feeling very honest with herself. "Like, am I only in love with him because I'm meant to be? From the very start, I didn't really have much choice about...who I wanted to be, did I Luna?"

"Serena, I..." Luna tries to say.

"No, it's true! Either I beat all the Negascum that never seems to quit coming, or I die, and what? Poor little Rini does it all over again? Or maybe Rini never even gets a chance to live because I mess things up or something and she never happens. I pretty much have to marry Darien, or I'll make that happen Luna. No choice, again I have no choice!" Serena fumes, beginning to pace back and forth as her hands clench into fists.

"Serena..." Luna looks on in dismay, the turmoil in her charge's heart hitting her full force as she struggles to invent the right words needed to comfort her. Then the air around Serena slightly blurs darkly for a split second, and Luna's kitty senses go into high alert as she gets to her feet.

"No I'm all right," Serena smiles over at Luna. "I don't know what came over me." She momentarily loses her train of thought and looks confused. "...Guess I must be nervous or something. We better get back to the others." Glancing at her watch, surprise flashes onto her face. "Oh my gosh! I'm late! I've still gotta get dressed! It's my wedding day, and I'm gonna to be late!" She runs off before Luna has a chance to say anything more.

Luna looks after her, and says to herself, "Something isn't right. I've got to tell the others." She jumps down from the tree to go after Serena, but her charge had already gained far too much distance for Luna to catch up.

—-

scene switch

—-

An hour or so later at the wedding, Trista is talking with Darien, Chad, and Michelle.

"It's also not that far from Serena's parents' house, so that makes her family happy. And I'm sure she'll be happy to be able to visit whenever we want. Her parents have actually been great about all of this. I really like them." Darien continues the conversation.

"You were kinda worried about that, weren't you?" asks Michelle.

"Yeah, I guess I was, with the age difference and all..." Darien answers.

"Man, you've got it lucky," Chad chimes in. "Ever since I asked Raye out, her grandpa's been working me like a pack animal..." He puts his hand behind his head and laughs a little at himself. "It's inspired me with my songs though, now that I've got angst."

"Then you'll be picking up your music career again?" Trista asks. "What kind of music do you play?"

"Oh, just your basic rock'n roll I guess, not like I have time to practice though," Chad grumbles good-naturedly.

"Maybe he wants you to be able to help Raye with running the temple?" Darien ventures.

Trista's attention wanders and she notices Hotaru and Amara nearby, Hotaru giggling happily as Amara animatedly tells her one of her favorite racing stories.

Suddenly, something seems wrong to her, she focuses her senses and the feeling grows stronger as her face momentarily flashes worry. However, she quickly hides it.

"Excuse me. I'm needed elsewhere," she bows slightly to be polite and heads off.

She walks off and we hear Chad in the background, "I wonder what that was about?"

"I don't know" Michelle replies with concern.

— scene break —

Trista walks outside toward a nearby koi pond with a little bridge over it. She stands on the bridge and concentrates on this feeling that she can't shake, trying to make sense of what it is. She knows it's bad but something inside her causes her thoughts to drift away to the joyous voices that float to her on the wind. "A family," she says to herself, "That's what they are for each other..." She longs to have that again, to be happy again. Yet she has her duty. It is hers alone, and she knows it means that she would forever be denied the longings of her heart. Looking up to the sky, she says to herself, "Time is infinite, you always said, and all things are possible..."

Shaking her head, she refocuses her thoughts on the problem at hand. She feels herself close to an answer when a voice distracts her...

"Trista?" She was snapped out of her thoughts. Turning, she sees Hotaru, wearing a lovely violet and black dress, watching her. "Trista, what's wrong?" her friend asks.

"Oh... nothing..." replies Trista quietly.

Hotaru walks up to Trista slowly and stands next to her. "If you ever need my help, let me know..." she offers sincerely.

Trista is always amazed by how perceptive Hotaru is. "Yes... I know," she smiles faintly at her. "Hotaru... do you think it's possible that we will ever truly find our time of peace, when we can all... when..." her voice trails off.

"When what? Trista, what is it? What's wrong? Do you... are we in some danger?" she asks, feeling protective of her friend.

"How do you...?" Trista asks, surprised again, but then smiles a little to herself. "I don't know, it's only a feeling," she confesses, "I have to go to see for myself. Watch over the others while I'm gone, alright? There's no need to ruin this day unnecessarily..." And with that, she fades from sight.

"Trista?" Hotaru calls after her, reaching her hand out to her, but feeling nothing there anymore.

—-

scene switch

—-

An instant later Sailor Pluto reappears close to the time gate she had been charged to guard for all time.

"This can't be" Trista says to herself quietly. Looking around, she sees the time gate in ruin, the landscape clear of its usual mists, and wild time energy cascading seemingly unchecked all around her. "The alarm, why didn't it..." she gasps, looking around in dismay. "What could have done this?"

"My mere presence here should attest to that, mistress," says a familiar voice from somewhere to the right and behind her.

Trista turns to see who spoke, fearing she already knows the answer all to well. "Banshu." She says the woman's name as she takes a few steps back in hesitation. "So she has-"

"Yes, no thanks to you," Banshu replies coldly, hatred evident in her eyes. "If it where up to me, I'd kill you for what you did. However, I am forbidden to... I am allowed to inflict pain on you however, if you will not come with me willingly." A cold smirk comes to her lips. "I do hope you are not planning on coming with me without a struggle?" she taunts.

Trista looks back at her, determination and a little fear showing in her stance. "No" she says simply, and then launches herself at Banshu, her time staff crackling with energy.

"Splendid." Banshu smiles back at her as she spreads her arms out to her sides, quickly lowering them to be level with her hips as a katana materializes in each hand.

—-

scene switch

—-

Back on earth at the wedding, it is just a bit after Trista left.

Serena is standing around by the buffet table as things are being set up. She's happily talking with Amy, Raye, and Lita.

"You did a really amazing job on the food here," Serena gushes, munching on another treat. "This is so good!"

"Aw, well, I didn't actually do most of this you know," Lita says modestly, still very happy at receiving the compliment.

"But you did plan the menu and I'm sure the wedding cake you made will be really great," offers Amy.

"Well... thanks, I'm glad you like it, this is my first time planning for such a big event. I mean, there have been birthday parties, but this is a wedding, your wedding, Serena. I'm just glad it's going so well," Lita replies happily.

"I bet in no time you'll have your own catering company that'll take the city by storm," Raye says with pride.

"Well, I'll have to graduate from chef's school first..." Lita provides. "But that's nothing, not when Amy here's probably gonna end up curing the common cold some day." Her modest streak shows again as she blatantly tries to shift the focus of the conversation.

"Yeah Amy, how've things been going at doctor school lately?" Serena asks cheerfully.

"Oh, well I think I've been doing pretty well so far. The classes have been hard, but I'm actually really enjoying myself," Amy explains.

"Same old Amy" Serena nudges her shoulder. "So, any cute doctor types hanging around?" she asks, slipping easily into match-making mode.

"Oh, um, well..." Amy fumbles, feeling a bit put on the spot.

"Excuse me, Serena?" Serena feels a tap on her shoulder. "Your mom sent us to get you. She wants to have a talk with you before the wedding," she turns and sees Michelle along with Amara.

"Okay, I'll be right... oh no! Tell me my dad isn't giving poor Darien 'a talking to'?" Serena realizes.

"Okay, I won't tell you then," Michelle agrees, a bit of amusement in her voice.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaims. "Raye, Raye, my good and dear friend, you'll help me won't you?" Serena whines charmingly at her.

"Serena," Raye says in annoyance.

"Please, just go over there, and, and distract him, just a little, com'on, it's my wedding day," she whines further.

"Oh all right, just because it's your wedding... but if grandpa tries this on Chad someday, just remember you owe me one, meatball head," Raye smirks good-naturedly.

"I'll remember. I promise," Serena says. "Now go, go, go off with you!" she shoos Raye on in that mock royalty voice of hers she uses from time to time.

"I'm going, I'm going," Raye says, thinking to herself as she leaves. [voiceover] "Hehe little does she suspect, grandpa's bound to be ten times worse than her matchstick of a dad," she grins to herself in satisfaction.

Off to the side, as Raye passes by her, we see Hotaru looking back at the others, a worried expression on her face. She goes after Raye and catches her by the arm. "Raye?"

"Yeah?" she looks back at Hotaru. "What's up? I gotta get going..." she explains.

—-

scene switch

—-

The battle between Trista and her opponent begins in a flash. Banshu slashes at Trista and cuts into her sleeve. Trista quickly halts and looks down at her arm in surprise. There was no blood. Swiftly returning her attention to where it needs to be, she looks up and sees Banshu taking another run at her.

Trista holds her staff up and blocks Banshu's swords, but her opponent just smiles down at her as she blasts her with a wave of crimson-purple energy focused through her twin katanas. Trista is knocked back a few yards.

Laughing merrily, Banshu moves with blurring speed and is on Trista again in seconds. A blast from the katana in her right hand slams into the ground with powerful force. Trista manages to dash out of the way in the nick of time, but the force of the blast refracts from the ground and makes it difficult for her to keep her footing. Despite being slightly dazed though, she stays on her feet.

"Had enough?" Banshu smiles at her, poised to attack again. She is clearly enjoying this fight quite a lot.

Trista doesn't reply, wishing it were not so. But knowing all too well that nothing she could say would matter, she just springs forward and breaks left, shouting out her attack, - "Pluto Deadly Scream!" -

Banshu takes the full force of the attack and staggers back slightly, looking back up at Trista. "Now that's more like it," she grins, launching herself at Trista again with dizzying speed and knocking her off her feet with ease.

"You know you can't beat me," Banshu smirks playfully. "But by all means, keep trying!" she laughs in dark delight.

Frustrated, Trista gets to her feet, charges at Banshu, and attacks - "Pluto Deadly Scream!" - but this time, Banshu winds around her attack with that amazing speed of hers, not allowing the attack to hit its mark while using one of her katana to strike at Trista's time staff. Banshu knocks the staff from her hands and then, in one fluid motion, knocks Trista down.

Trista lands on the ground behind Banshu. Looking around for it, her eyes lock onto her lost weapon lying far away from her in the massive energy of time space. Before she knows it, Banshu's shadow falls over her, one of her katana shining mere inches away from her left eye.

Banshu holds the sword easily in place with practiced skill. Trista stares up along its edge, her eyes unblinking but for once.

"Well now..." Banshu tilts her head to the side in conceit. "As enjoyable as this has been, it wouldn't do if I had to damage you too much. Do yourself a favor and stop resisting me little Setsa," she smirks down at Trista.

Trista bristles at this, and slowly brings her hands up to the sword in her face, knowing that Banshu is forbidden to deliver a deadly blow. Defiance sets into her eyes.

Banshu watches the change in Trista's eyes and suddenly her expression changes to one of apprehension. "You wouldn't dare," she says, a sliver of fear showing in her eyes. "You wouldn't, I... was just playing... you know I... you wouldn't!" Her face turns to cold anger.

But as faint energy ripples around Trista, the fear momentarily returns to Banshu's face, just as Trista's eyes are set again on her opponent and her arms cross at the wrists. "Eternia..." she says reverently, energy exploding out around her in an instant. "TEMPEST!" She breaks her hands apart as they close into fists and she flings her arms back. "I'm sorry" Trista whispers softly, as a devastating tempest of energy explodes out around her, directed at Banshu and out in all directions, leaving Banshu no escape.

Banshu is easily knocked back, energy cracking all around her. She spirals hopelessly through time, helpless to halt her movement or to stabilize herself in any meaningful way. "Little witch! I'll make you regret this...!" Banshu yells at her futilely.

Sitting up on one knee, Trista looks after her. Wistfulness comes to her face for a moment as Banshu's form falls far from her sight. She looks down and closes her eyes, then gets to her feet and goes to retrieve her staff. Taking one last look at the destroyed time gate, a look of regret appears over her face and is gone just as quickly. "I've got to warn them..." she says, turning and disappearing back into time.

—-

scene switch

—-

Back at the wedding, a little earlier, things are going along great. The weather is still fantastic. There's a soft breeze blowing and the air is warm with sunshine. Serena is just getting ready to walk down the aisle. Darien stands there looking gorgeous in his tux against the backdrop of the beautifully decorated gazebo. A smile appears on his face as he sees Serena for the first time, standing at the end of the aisle in her beautiful white wedding dress, holding the bouquet of red roses he had given to her. Andrew stands next to the groom as his best man, flanked by Chad and two of Darien's friends from school.

Serena's father is waiting at the end of the aisle, ready to escort her. "Ready dad?" she asks him cheerfully, he smiles back at her sincerely, but does not answer right away.

It's safe to say that her father had been preparing for this day since he had learned that Darien had proposed to his daughter, but seeing her now...in that beautiful white bridal gown...he feels tears forming. He offers his arm to his daughter, which Serena takes gladly. However, he finds that he needs a little time to gather himself. Serena understandingly stands with him for a few moments.

"Ok... I'm ready" he says, still a bit emotional, but able to gather his strength and courage.

The wedding precession begins; Amy, Lita, and Raye [the bridesmaids] start down the aisle. While they wait for their turn, Serena turns to Molly [her maid of honor] and says, "I wish Mina could be here for this."

"Don't worry Serena, I'm sure she'll be here soon, and-" Molly starts to say, but then everyone turns, their attention caught by a loud crash in the trees. They look over and hear another crash as a bolt of energy streams out and hits a tree near some of the wedding guests. All rush to get out of the way while, closest to the scene, Amy, Lita, and Raye (thankful that their bridesmaids dresses allow them the necessary freedom of movement) act quickly to whisk a couple children and an older man who trips from danger just in time.

The sailor scouts then stand ready to confront what is coming their way. As soon as they do so, Luna bursts into view, running towards them at high speed as fast as her poor kitty paws can go. A pair of women - one dressed in black with long dark hair, the other in white with short light hair - races after her, only a split second behind her. Suddenly, one darts in front of Luna. But Luna evades her and keeps going, putting all the energy she's got into her last dash towards safety.

Michelle and Amara nod to one another and switch to sailor scout mode right away - "Uranus Star Power!" - "Neptune Star Power!" - and go on to attack Luna's pursuers, blocking them from getting to Luna. The others, a little slower to reveal their identities in front of their friends, hesitate some. Amara launches a punch at the light one, and knocks her back, though her opponent manages to keep to her balance. Michelle uses the dark one's momentum against her and flips her, sending her to the ground. But the dark woman rolls into a crouched position where she fires a blast of energy at Michelle. Michelle easily dodges, but the blast is not meant for Michelle. It streaks past her and hits Amara who's attention is on her own opponent. The blast catches Amara at unawares. And while she manages at the last second to avoid taking the full force, it nonetheless sends her reeling to the ground. Seeing her opportunity, Amara's opponent moves in to press her own attack. Michelle goes to her aid though, charging at the white-clad woman and tackling her to the ground. This gives Amara time to recover, but also leaves the one in dark free to return her focus to Luna. [all of this having taken place in mere seconds]

Luna shouts to the others, "It's Serena, you've got to-" But the twin who has gotten away from Amara and Michelle fires a blast of black energy at Luna, attempting to stop her from speaking further.

"Luna!" Lita exclaims as looks on in shock.

The blast never hits its mark though, as we turn to see Amy as Mercury holding Luna safely a few yards away from the blast zone. "What?" the one in black says, confused, not knowing where the cat had gone for a second. She looks up as a pair of voices call out - "Mars Star Power!" - "Jupiter Star Power!" - and she sees Mars and Jupiter facing her, ready for a fight.

"Luna, what's wrong? Who are these women?" Amy questions Luna.

"I don't know," she tries to keep her breath after running for so long. "But we've got to get to Serena. Something awful has happened to her. I just know it!" Luna replies worriedly.

"Sister!" shouts Twilight Dark to her twin, who is having a very difficult time holding her own against Amara and Michelle. Twilight Light looks up in understanding, taking a kick from Michelle in the face for her distraction. But in a moment both Twilight Sisters vanish and the merged Sister Twilight appears in the sky before them, light and dark energy shimmering discordantly around her. She shouts out her attack - "Twilight Hex!" - and the four scouts that flank her [Michelle, Amara, Raye, and Lita] are caught in a fluxing energy field of light and dark that holds them helplessly in place.

Sister Twilight strikes out at them, assaulting all of the sailor scouts before her with a fierce bolt of energy. They stagger with pain for a moment, but then a red rose flies into view and strikes the energy between Sister Twilight's hands, breaking the spell.

"I don't know what you're doing here monster," Darien declares in barely contained anger, as we see him standing on a nearby table as Tuxedo Mask. "But you're not going to ruin this day for us, any more than you already have! Isn't that right..." he looks over to Serena, expecting to see her, like always, ready to take down another enemy, but his words catch in his throat.

There at the end of the aisle where the people have already ran away, with the exception of Molly and Serena's family, Serena lays collapsed on the ground. Amy and an exhausted Luna are by her side in the midst of the huddle. Amy is holding Serena in her arms, trying to wake her, and Luna is nudging Serena softly with one paw, while Molly and Serena's family look on in undisguised shock and worry.

"No! It's too soon!" Everyone hears a disembodied voice say. The voice seems to come from around the collapsed form of Serena.

"Serena!" Darien shouts out in concern, echoed by Raye and Lita.

But there is no more time. A wave of dark energy flashes out from Serena's body, knocking those close to her away with ease.

The voice then commands, "Sister Twilight! Attend Me!"

"At once mistress," Twilight says, splitting apart again and reappearing around Serena's unconscious form. A split second later, a time rift forms in front of the mysterious sisters.

Without hesitation, Darien, with Amara, Michelle, Raye, and Lita not far behind, rush to Serena's aid.

Amy, still dazed and out of it from the blast she took, looks about and sees the time rift and the two women trying to abduct Serena in front of her. She knows she must do something but can't seems to get her body to do much of anything.

Then, from beside her, she sees Darien rushing by, his black and red cape whipping behind him. Her fellow sailor scouts, having been farther away and still feeling fatigued from Twilight's Hex attack, are not able to reach Serena as quickly.

Sensing his approach, Twilight Light calls out - "Flare!" - and a wave of light hits Darien, stopping him in his tracks and sending him back on his feet just a little. The attack does not have much of a forceful impact, but it does leave him disoriented and momentarily without sight.

Twilight Dark leans down to pick up Serena's body, but takes the blunt end of a staff in the face and is knocked down. The dark woman looks up to see Hotaru standing between her and Serena, the smaller sailor scout planting her staff on the ground and calling out her attack - "Silent Wall" - and just like that, a wave of Saturn's dark energy springs up and forces the sisters away.

Raye, Lita, Amara, and Michelle arrive moments later, but along with Hotaru, they are knocked back by a second wave of energy issuing forth from Serena's still body.

The Twilight Sisters waste no time in gathering up their prize and are gone. Amy and Darien, nether having been caught in the second blast wave from Serena's body, spring forward to go again to Serena's aid. Amy, still not quite steady on her feet, reaches the rift just in time to see the last of Darien disappear, calling after his love - "Serena!" - only having just been able to dash through at the last second. Amy however, feels nothing but swirling air between her fingers as she reaches out after them. She falls to the ground, having lost her balance in that last-ditch attempt to reach the disappearing rift.

The view expands outward and we see the full scene. The other sailor scouts pick themselves up from the attacks they suffered and look on in disbelief, having lost not only their princess, leader, and long-time friend, but her prince as well.

—-

End Episode 1

—-


	2. Episode 2 'Glimmers Of Hope'

**Sailor Moon Season 6**

**Episode #2: "Glimmers Of Hope"**

—-

**Starts off with the intro sequence, then opens to a black screen. There's a moment of illumination as Serena's outlined, light-filled form is reveled, then back to black and Serena's voice. "Where am I?" She says as she flickers in and out a bit more.**

—-

We see a view out of a car window as trees are going by. A familiar voice says "You know we're probably going to miss the whole wedding." The white cat grumbles from his spot on the comfortable black leather seat.

"I know!" Mina says in annoyance. "It's not like we can do anything though; it's not our fault that there was a traffic jam at the airport. The others will understand." Her voice optimistic, trying to cheer her friend up and make herself feel better about it at the same time.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one Luna's going to come down on like a ton of bricks for this." Artemis further mutters while eyeing Mina a little as he lays his head down in disgrace on his paws.

"Don't you mean two tons of bricks, Artemis?" She says back teasingly, saying it like she was just talking about the weather on a lazy afternoon, then looking over at the snow white kitty cat with a playful smile on her face.

"That's right miss big-shot" Artemis raises his head from his folded paws, gesturing with his head back and forth his displeasure, "stick it to the little guy. And what makes it worse is you're probably right." He says, looking over at Mina with a small smile on his face, now feeling in a little better sprits thanks to Mina's friendly teasing.

The buzz from an intercom interrupts them as the limo comes to a stop. Mina hits a blue button and the limo driver's voice comes over the intercom. "Hey Mina, we've arrived, but um... something doesn't seem right..." She says hesitantly.

"What do you mean, Sandy?" Mina asks. Getting a bad feeling from the tone of her assistant's voice, she doesn't bother to wait for an answer as she jumps out of the now stopped car, Artemis following suite. Sandy's inaudible voice comes lightly over the intercom in the background.

Mina looks over the car and spots a plume of smoke above the trees, most of the cars are gone. Something catches her ear and, calming her mind, she can just make out her friends' voices, tense and loud, carried on the wind. She then jumps over the car and, taking the shortest route, disappears though the trees that are directly in her way.

Sandy gets out of the limo and looks around trying to locate her passenger, who is no where to be seen. She thinks she hears a noise from the nearby trees, and goes to look inside the limo to be sure Mina isn't there.

"Now where did she get off to?" She says to no one in particular. "Oh, this is just so like her! No wonder her chauffeur up and quit on her, I don't blame him!" She grumbles in exasperation as she walks off down the winding path towards the wedding in search of her absent employer.

—-

scene switch

—-

"I don't care! We have to go after them!" Raye's voice is heard over the rest.

"And where exactly do you think we're going to go?" Michelle asks, she's keeping her voice calm, but her tone shows that her patience is beginning to fray a little. She's frustrated, they all are.

"Well, I don't know, but we still have to try!" Raye pleads.

"Try what?" Michelle asks, daring Raye to think of something.

"Sailor Planet power! It's worked before, together we could, and maybe Amy–" But she is cut off.

"Amy already tried to find them!" Michelle explodes with exasperation.

"So, she'll try again!"

"And if she does, then what?! We don't even know where we'd be going! It's could very likely be a trap, we could be heading down some deep dark place we'd never find our way from. What would happen to Serena then? What would happen to the world if we aren't here to protect it? Our enemy is obviously very powerful, and whoever they are, they're probably cunning too. We have to be careful and come up with a plan!"

"Oh, a plan. Like your other great plans? Is that what's going to save Serena? Maybe we should ALL go under cover as Negaverse agents this time? Yeah, that'd be BIG help!" Raye lashes out at her.

Amy looks on and sees Michelle get this look on her face, somewhere between guilt and fury, but instead of saying anything, Michelle just stalks off away from everyone else. She sees Amara march up to Raye and yell "Oh, nice! That was REAL nice Raye!" Amy stiffens a bit, for a moment it looks like Raye and Amara might come to blows, but Amara just gives Raye a hard stare and turns around to follow her girlfriend.

Shaking her head, Amy can't help but think how much Raye's outburst had reminded her of how the raven haired girl would argue with Serena and say such awful things to her. It was a sudden wave of nostalgia, and it hit her hard as she was confronted by the thought of all the things she might never get to experience again, things she had taken for granted would always be there. And she recalls the look in her friend's eyes the last time she had seen her, she would NEVER forget that look... Serena might be gone forever this time, and it made her more sad than she could ever remember being. But she did not cry, she had to be strong for the others, for Serena's parents and little brother. She had to be strong for all their sakes. Her tears could wait. [shown in montage of scenes | voiceover, Amy: "Same old Raye... {scenes of Raye and Serena arguing}. You never think about things like this, that you'll loose them some day... {scenes of Amy and Serena and of Serena with Amy, Raye, Lita, and Mina}. I wonder, did I take my friends for granted? Did I ever tell Serena how much her friendship has meant to me? {scenes switch back to the almost wedding, of how Serena's face looked, of her being carried away and of Amy not reaching her in time} Her face looked so different, the look in her eyes, like she was fighting and she knew for sure that she couldn't win... I will never forget that look as long as I live... she really might not come back this time. {she sniffles a little} No, I won't cry, I have to be strong... for the others, and for Serena's family... my tears can wait."]

Looking over again, Amy sees Raye sullenly walk over and sit down on a rock nearby, Chad following along behind her. He had wisely chosen to stay out of the argument before, but Amy was glad to see the boy knew enough not to leave Raye alone right now [voiceover, Amy: "It's good to know Chad is there for her..."]. She looks on as she sees Chad sit down next to her, wrapping an arm around her in comfort.

"It's just not fair!" She hears Raye shout animatedly as a few tears start to stream down her face. "Why does it always have to be like this!?"

Amy is touched to see Chad hug her and offer her a linen tissue. [voiceover, Amy: "These are not the tears that were supposed to fall today."] Amy sadly thinks to herself as she returns her attention to Serena's parents. The couple are comforting one another, Serena's father holding his wife to him and consoling her. Amy looks into his eyes and he looks like he is in shock. [voiceover, Amy: "I wonder how much of what's happened has really sunk in for him?"] And she looks over to Sammy, who is sitting on a chair a little ways away, his chin in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. He's just staring out at where it had happened, so she gets up and walks over to him.

As she goes, Amy catches a glimpse of Hotaru sitting in a chair talking with Luna. [voiceover, Amy: "I wonder what those two are talking about?"] Sammy looks up and sees Amy... Sailor Mercury, sit down in the chair next to him. She doesn't say anything though, and he looks over at her. "So, you're Sailor Mercury I guess?" He asks. "And Serena, she, she would have to be..."

"Sailor Moon..." Amy confirms.

"I guess I really should have known. I mean, who else in the world would wear their hair like that? Only my goofy sister, that's who." He says with a little bit of a smile. "And to think, all these years I was telling her how cool she was and I didn't even know it... And you know she's never going to let me live it down... if she gets back..." He looks out at the scene before him again.

Amy just rests her hand on his shoulder, and, at the contact, he turns back to face her again.

"We'll get her back. I promise we won't give up until we get her back." Amy says.

Sammy looks into her determined eyes and he feels a little better.

"I... Thanks Amy." He says sincerely.

Amy nods to him and gets up to look back in on her friends. She sees Lita talking with Molly [voiceover, Amy: "That's right, Molly came on her own today. Her mother, she has the flu."] She turns more towards them, Molly is acting a little hysterical at the moment. [voiceover, Amy: "Lita looks like she could use some help."] But as she heads over there, her ears catch a disturbance coming from the tree line. For a moment she tenses, expecting it to be another attack, but then as she turns, a relieved smile comes to her face. [voiceover, Amy: "Mina's here."]

Sailor Venus heads across the field towards her friends, Artemis right by her side. But when she sees them clearly, she starts to slow down as the scene before her fully registers.

She sees Amy as the other girl catches sight of her and she heads over to her. "Amy... what's going on?" Mina asks bewilderedly. "What happened? where's Serena? ...and Darien?"

Amy looks at her and Mina can tell from her eyes that something is very wrong. "They're both gone. There... was an attack..." Amy explains.

"An attack? Who att- I mean, are... are they..."

"Mina no, at least... We don't really know, but I have to believe they're both still alive somewhere." Amy replies, the look in her eyes making Mina believe it too. "We'll get them back."

"Of course we will!" Raye says, getting to her feet again. "Those Negascum are gonna regret the day they even heard of us!"

"Right!" Lita jumps in, getting into the group spirit that was building.

A small hopeful smile comes to Mina's lips as she notices Amara and Michelle walking up to them and lending their silent support, and Hotaru too coming over towards them with Luna on her heal, but it was a short lived moment.

"So... what happened to them?" Artemis asks, the smile leaving Mina's face at his words, and a concerned look taking it's place.

"Yeah, do we know who it was? What they wanted?" Mina asks anxiously.

Luna steps up, jumping to a chair that hadn't been knocked over, and she begins to speak. "We think they wanted Serena - Sailor Moon... but I got the feeling they had to act sooner than they would have liked." She explains, getting everyone's attention, including Molly, who was now just listening quietly along with the other sailor scouts. "Before the wedding, Serena and I were out by the ocean by ourselves. She spoke about destiny and feeling trapped by it... I saw this despair in her I've never seen before. There was a desperate, reaching sort of fury in her voice... but then I saw a dark energy aura manifest around her and she changed instantly! She acted as if everything were perfectly alright again. And then she dashed off to the wedding without another thought, worried she'd be late... but when I tired to follow her to warn everyone of about what I'd seen, those two sisters attacked me. They chased me into the woods, tried their best to get at me. Luckily though, they didn't use their energy powers - for fear of calling attention to themselves I'd have to think - so I had a better chance. Nevertheless, it took what seemed like an eternity to finally get away from them long enough so that I could get back here."

"I've heard enough of this!" They hear a voice demand, and they turn to see Serena's farther standing there behind them. "I want to know what's going on, and I want to know where my daughter is, right now!"

"Mr. Tsukino, I... I know–" but Amy never gets a chance to finish her reply, as a swirl or air and energy begins to form in their midst, and, in a moment, Sailor Pluto is there.

"What on Earth..." Mr. Tsukino stumbles backward in surprise at Trista's sudden appearance before him, tripping and falling backwards to the ground. Amy and Mrs. Tsukino both going to help him up.

"What is... why is?..." Trista looks around in confusion.

"Trista, you're all right!" Hotaru smiles in relief, moving over closer to her, Amy, and Serena's parents.

"Please," Mrs. Tsukino pleads "can you just tell us, what happened to our daughter? Is... is... Serena, where–"

But Trista is not listening, she feels the time disturbance all around her. "No, I'm too late!" Her body flickers in and out of existence as she tries to teleport somewhere but fails again and again. "It's no good." She says harshly to herself, her hands tightening into fists.

"Um, what's no good?" Mina asks.

"Mina?" She hears her assistant call. "What's going on?" But Trista's form flickers again and all the sudden everyone's dressed as they were, not in scout mode anymore, and Serena's family is nowhere to be seen.

"Um," Mina walked over to Sandy. "I'm going to have to stay in town for a while... My friends, uh, they, they were kidnapped..."

"Oh my god! Mina, I..." She looks around. "What did they kidnap them with, a tank?!" She exclaims.

— scene break —

One quickly fabricated explanation later.

"So I'm going to have to take a break from my career for a while, while I see to things here..."

"No problem," Sandy assures supportively "you have to be here for your friends. I understand... and don't worry about a thing, I'll make all the arrangements." She pats Mina's hand and turns to go. "Take care of yourself, okay?" She waves as she sets off.

"I will. Bye Sandy, see you in a while." Mina waves back.

"Thank goodness you warned us she was coming. That was a close one." Mina exhales in relief, not having wanted her assistant to know of her double identity. "Wait, how'd you know she was even here?" She asks in confusion.

"I shifted back in time a little ways to warn you." Trista explains distantly. "I'm... I'm sorry." She now looks to the others with a kind of hurt and guilty look on her face.

"Sorry for what?" Mina asks.

"I..." Trista starts to say.

"Trista, I thought you were forbidden to use your powers like that? That there would be consequences if you did?" Amy notices.

"I was, but that no longer matters I'm afraid. I'm free to use them as much as I want." She explains.

"But why?" Raye asks, leaning against Chad, who's arm was wrapped around her waist.

"Wait," Lita jumps up, a hope sparking in her thoughts "if that's really true, can't you just go back in time and save Serena and Darien?"

Trista looks away again. "I tried that, but my power was blocked. There's a barrier around that part of time that I can't get through..." She looks back up at them, her eyes filled with regret. "It's my fault, all of this is. If I had done my job, she would not have gotten free, and now all of this..."

"You mean to say that you know who's behind all this?" Luna speaks up, her attention piqued.

"I'm afraid so." Trista kneels down before the black cat with the crescent moon, looking around at the other's faces as well. "The reason I could not use my time powers, the consequences were that if I did, the one I guarded against might be able to break free..." She looks down at the ground. "My mother, Suzu of Endless. She is the one who has done this..."

Everyone looks at her in surprise as the scene shifts...

—-

scene switch

—-

..and we see Darien floating aimlessly in the timestream.

[voiceover, Darien: "Serena..." He says in his mind. "...why can't I find you?... This is the timestream. According to Sailor Pluto, if I'm lost, I should be able to find my way by concentrating on where I want to go... I've been thinking of you, so why can't I find you?!"] His thoughts grow more frustrated. "Arhg." He groans aloud. "It's no use. Why did this have to happen? Haven't we been through enough? It's not fair, Serena deservers to have a happy life... not this. Never this..."

Off in the distance, he sees something. Barely a glimmer, but it's bright and it seems familiar. [voiceover, Darien: "I feel like, I know who that is..."] Daren thinks.

"Serena!" He calls, willing himself towards the familiar light.

When he gets close, he sees it really isn't Serena at all, but a young girl dressed as a sailor scout in burgundy. She is laying on her stomach, her elbows out in front of her, hands holding her chin up and feet absently moving back and forth a little. Her attention is apparently focused elsewhere, though Darien can not tell where.

"Um, excuse me?" Darien speaks up as he hovers near the sphere of energy she is surrounded by.

The young sailor scout is startled and gets up, spinning around to see who it is. At first she is ready for a fight, but then she sees who it is and her face brightens with renewed surprise and joy. "Darien! Is that really you? Oh I can't believe you're here!" She exclaims.

"Yeah, my name is Darien, but who are you? And how do you know who I am?" Darien asks.

"You mean you don't... you don't know who I am?" She asks, a little disappointed. "I'm Akilah Chiba, I'm your sister." She explains.

"My sister? But I don't..."

"You don't remember me... It must be Suzu's doing." She says darkly.

"Who's Suzu?" Darien asks, getting more confused.

"Darien, I am your sister, you've gotta believe me!" Akilah reaches her hand out to her brother. Darien responds, feeling a connection between them and instinctively trusting the girl.

"We were fighting to save Earth when all this happened." Akilah begins to say. But as soon as they try to touch hands, the field around Akilah breaks and the flash of energy sends them careening through time.

"Darien!" Akilah calls out, reaching out and grabbing her brother's hand as they fall through time.

Energy spins around them and something seems to be speeding towards them (a world, then, closer still, the ground). And in the blink of an eye, they find themselves laying on the ground somewhere.

Darien looks up to the sky, hears a bird's call in the air. The sky is clear except for a few small clouds. The sun is out and it's rays shine down on his face. He sits up and looks around. It's rocky, there's lots of grass and wildflowers around; they're in the mountains somewhere. He looks over and sees Akilah sitting up and looking around as well. He gets to his feet and offers her his hand to help her up.

"Do you know where we are?" Darien asks.

"No," Akilah answers, looking around more "but it's not just where, it's also when... We could be anywhere, any when." She looks back at her brother. "There's really no way of knowing."

"That's kinda dismal." He says with a little of a smile, getting a weird sense of déjà vu, like he'd said that same thing to her many times.

"Same old Darien," Akilah smiles at him "always trying to cheer me up."

"Can we sit down and talk awhile?" Darien asks. "I'm not feeling too hot all of the sudden, a little dizzy maybe... and we should really talk about this, don't you think?"

"Yeah, okay." Akilah smiles, finding a nice patch of grass to settle on. "I feel a little light headed too, must be time lag or something." She says jokingly.

"Yeah, I guess, or it could just be all that spinning around we did. I feel like someone put me through the ringer back there." He says a little embarrassed, choosing a rock next to his sister to sit down on.

"What's a ringer?" Akilah asks.

Darien opens his mouth to reply, then closes it again. "You know, I don't really know?... I think it's something people use to dry clothes? Before my time I guess." He supplies.

"Oh." Akilah replies simply, looking around at the scenery a little and wondering what to say now. "So, um, what do you remember anyway?" She asks, a little less than tactfully.

Darien sighs. "Not much from before." He admits, looking off pensively. "From my life in the past I mean. The Moon Kingdom, all the kingdoms of our solar system, fell in battle. This is what I know: Queen Beryl, a powerful evil from the Negaverse, attacked us. There was a great war and, one by one, the kingdoms fell until only the Earth and the Moon Kingdom remained. We fought hard, but Beryl was too strong. Queen Serenity finally defeated her, sealing her evil away from the universe with the power of her Imperiam Sliver Crystal. She used the last of her strength to send her daughter and all those who still remained into the future to be reborn on Earth and live new lives where they could find peace and happiness. But Beryl came back, and I found Serena again, and the other sailor scouts. Beryl was destroyed at last... but we've never had our memories from the past returned to us. Just flashes, feelings, dreams mostly."

Akilah is silent for a moment, letting all of this sink in.

"Wow..." She finally says. "Get thrown into time by an evil time sorceress for a while and you sure miss out on a lot."

Darien can't help but smile. "You do seem really familiar to me." He says. "Like something just on the tip of my tongue sometimes. I believe you." He says, looking over at her. "I believe you're my sister. You feel like you're my sister anyway." He says, ruffling her hair a little in typical brotherly fashion.

"And you are definitely my big brother Darien." She replies sardonically, moving her head away to escape while straightening her hair.

Darien chuckles a little at this. "So, can you tell me what happened to you then? Where you've been?" He asks.

"Yeah, of course." She smiles over at him. "For where I've been, I've been pretty much where you found me. That witch, Suzu, she trapped me there when I tried to save you." She relates disgruntledly. "But it wasn't so bad." Her mood becomes more upbeat again. "I figured out pretty soon that I could look out through time if I tried. I couldn't choose what time chose to show me though... It was like, I would look and I could see one place and time or another, and I could keep watching that place as long as I stayed focused on it, but as soon as I looked away, it was gone." She looks off into the sky thoughtfully. "I kept hoping that maybe one time, I would see you, or someone I knew, and I'd find out what had happened to you all. If you had good lives, if you had a family..." She looks back over at him. "Time never cooperated though." She smiles a little regretfully. "But it's okay now, 'cause you're here."

Darien smiles back at her, putting his hand oh her shoulder to show support.

They are quiet for a moment. "Can you tell me... about what happened? How you got there?" Darien asks. "You said this Suzu woman, she sent you there for trying to protect me?" He asks, feeling guilty at the thought.

"Well, yes. Though I guess it wasn't as intentional as all that... She attacked you when... what's that?" Akilah gets to her feet and looks off to Darien's side. Darien looks over where his sister is looking and sees the sky in that direction start to darken. The sky all around them starts to grow harried, the clouds begin to glow with purple light, and there's lightening but no thunder. All is strangely quiet as the two look on and the sky opens up, light pouring through as the ground starts to shake.

The two chosen royalty of Gaia head over towards the disturbance, and, getting to the edge of a valley, they look down and see a city with a river flowing around it.

"This looks like Crystal Tokyo did... except, it's smaller than that... could we be in the future?" Darien turns to Akilah and asks.

Akilah looks over at him, but as she's about to reply, the sky rift intensifies out near the outskirts of the city and a man comes through it - his arms spread out to his sides, and time energy flowing off of him in a beautiful yet unmistakably foreboding way.

Akilah's eyes narrow, and she starts to say something unintelligible under her breath as she summons up parts of earth beneath her feet to launch herself into the air at the man in the sky.

"Zamid!" She calls in challenge.

The man turns upon hearing his name, just in time to get a brief glimpse of his attacker as Akilah slams into him with a cluster of rocks and gravel hardened and suspended in a field around her fist. And then she calls out her attack – "Gaia's Fury!" – blasting him to the ground with devastating force.

Zamid gets to his feet and sees Akilah landing close by, her posture hostel as she summons up another attack.

"Earth princess?" Zamid says. "Hut how-?" He doesn't have time to say more as Akilah launches her attack – 'Gaia's Embankment, Surround!" – she calls, and roots and vines soar up from the earth, wrapping around him in an instant, holding him firm and pulling him down into the ground.

More roots come from the earth and Akilah rushes at him again, using them as a moving path to speed her way, intent on hitting him again with solid earth. But just as she becomes level with Zamid, he sees what is going to occur and calls on his powers to blast himself free of Akilah's trap, causing Akilah to lose her balance and stumble.

Zamid lets loose a blast of electric energy that knocks Akilah to the ground, into which she swiftly sinks, disappearing from sight.

Darien arrives at the scene, having rushed down the hillside after his sister, who had traveled through the air much swifter than he could have followed. Zamid sees him. "Well, well, and look who we have here." He smirks viciously, launching himself through the sky at Darien.

Darien side-steps him, barely, but Zamid turns with extraordinary agility. "Darien! Watch Out!" Akilah cries, charging up through the earth below as Zamid is just short of reaching Darien again.

She knocks Zamid away from her brother, her fist now in the form of solid rock, hitting him square in the jaw.

– "Ivy Chains, Entangle!" – she shouts out, opening her hand towards Zamid as a circle of green energy forms around it and the ivy vines speed out, materializing from the energy to lash out at Zamid via their mistress's will, striking at Zamid so hard that it sends him careening backwards, skidding to a stop in the dirt several meters away.

Zamid gets on his feet quickly though, seemingly only staggered a little, and blasts both of them, making it so they can hardly even move.

He starts to walk towards them, an amused smirk on his face, and Daren asks. "Who is this guy?"

"He's Zamid." Akilah answers. "He's the man who killed our father."

—-

scene switch

—-

"Your mom? So, you're saying your mom kidnapped Serena?! But why?!" Lita demands bewilderedly.

Trista sighs. "It's a very long story... but essentially, my mother, Queen of the Kingdom of Pluto... Once, she thought she could erase all the worlds' woes, stop the evils the Negaverse would inflict upon us. She wanted to make the universe a paradise... Her powers over time had grown nearly absolute, and she set out to re-shape existence to bring about her dream. I, being a loyal daughter and believing in her cause, helped her all that I could. But... that kind of power, the power to change destiny at a whim, it changed her somehow... She began to grow ruthless, to lose sight of the people she wanted to help, especially when forces from the Moon Kingdom began to oppose her. Finally, she did something I could not forgive and I begged her to stop. She would not listen... She trapped me away. Neo Queen Serenity... Serena, in the future, she called to me in my prison, asked for my aide, and I lent my power to her so that she could battle my mother... Serena stopped her in the end, freed me... but my power was the only thing keeping my mother from breaking free, so I had to be careful how I used it... Until now, I mean."

They are all quiet for a few moments.

"It's not your fault, you know?" Mina puts her hand on Trista's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself, okay? You don't deserve it."

Trista looks over at her and gives her a half-hearted smile. "It's nice of you to say." She covers Mina's hand with her own. "But it doesn't change my responsibility... I was the only one who could stop her before, and that hasn't changed now. But we need Serena's power, the power of the Imperiam Silver Crystal as well, that's the only way we'll succeed in this. We have to get it back, or find it in another time."

"Then we should try that option first, finding it somewhere else in time?" Michelle speaks up. "That way, we'll be at full strength when we challenge her."

"Like hell!" Raye cuts in. "We need to go after Serena! And who made you leader all of the sudden?" She challenges her.

"No one. But the facts are the facts. We can't rescue Serena without fighting Suzu. We can't win against Suzu unless we have the Imperiam Silver Crystal. Therefore we should get the crystal before we fight her. Serena has the crystal in our time, so we go to another. What other option do we have?"

Raye glares at her. "Coward! It's just too hard, so you take the path of lest resistance. If we go after Serena, we can hold off Suzu long enough to free Serena and once we do that, we'll have won!"

"And if Suzu beats us before we get to Serena? If we can't even find Serena?" Michelle points out regretfully. "What then? What will happen to Serena then? I know you think I'm being cold... or that I don't care, but that's not true at all." She pleads. "I know you want to charge to her rescue, but that's not what has the best chance of saving her. Don't you understand that? What matters here is saving Serena and stopping Suzu. We have a responsibility to make the choices that have the best chance of doing that."

Raye is silent and just looks at Micelle for a moment, trying to figure out if she should believe her or not, then she looks away over at Luna. "What do you think we should do?" She asks the black cat.

"I'm not sure, to be honest..." Luna admits.

"Do we even know where to look for Suzu?" Amara asks.

"I can find her." Trista replies. "Have no worry about that."

"Whatever is to be done, one thing is for certain, we have to act together." Luna again speaks. "We won't have time to take a committee like this when we face the enemy. We need a leader."

"As long as it's not her." Raye says, looking at Michelle.

Michelle gets a hurt look on her face and looks away.

"Please, everyone stop fighting." Molly breaks in. "Luna is right, it doesn't help anything." She pleads.

Raye goes over to Molly to comfort her. "I'm sorry Molly... You're right. I should learn to keep my big mouth shut sometimes. Please don't cry."

"It's okay, I know it's just because you all care about Serena... She's lucky she has friends like you who would do all this just for her."

Molly's words have a sobering effect on everyone.

"Thank you Molly." Luna complements her. "...All right, I think the best way to decide is by vote. Each of you, come down next to me and tell me your vote privately if you please." She instructs.

In turn, each of them kneel down by Luna and whisper their vote to her. When the last of them has spoken, they all gather 'round to hear who had been chosen.

"I'm very pleased to say, that with five out of eight votes in her favor, Amy, Sailor Mercury, is the one who has been chosen." Luna informs them, pleased with their selection. (Amara and Trista had voted for Michelle, Hotaru for Trista, the rest had chosen Amy.)

"Me?" Amy says, clearly surprised by the choice.

"And who else were we going to choose? We know you've got what it takes Amy." Lita smiles positively, and with much confidence in her friend. They all smile and express their support and their belief in Amy, who receives it all in her usual modest style.

"Thank you, all." Amy smiles. "I promise, I'll do my very best to live up to your belief in me."

"Something isn't right." Trista says, looking around her and causing some of the others to look at her strangely. "Someone's here. Show yourself!" She commands

The air around them dims and the light shifts slightly purple. There is a strange humming sound for a moment, and then a ghostly image comes into view as startled expressions come to the faces of all assembled.

"You can't stop me, you know." Speaks Serena.

—-

End Episode 2

—-


	3. Episode 3 'The Ballad of Arion and Anato

**Sailor Moon Season 6**

**Episode #3: "The Ballad of Arion and Anatolle"**

—-

**Starts off with the intro sequence, then the scene opens with gathering clouds, a darkening sky, and sounds of crackling energy...**

—-

We pan in over the woods and into a clearing where the full numbers of the Sailor Scouts are arrayed facing a girl who looks for all the world exactly like Sailor Moon. Their leader and friend.

"You don't have to worry. I'm not your enemy. I'm your friend." She tells them.

"You're not her." Lita says with obvious, yet restrained, anger.

"I'm close enough, for now." The girl who looks like Sailor Moon says. "What matters..." She sweeps her gaze over the group assembled before her. "Is that you don't have anything to fear from me. I really am on your side. And I may not be her." She looks to Lita while saying this. Lita tenses up. "But I do know you, all of you. Even you, Molly. You're my best friend, right?" She smiles to the girl. "We've been best friends since we were little."

"Serena..." Molly looks confused.

Amy looks at Molly with concern and then brings up her computer visor and looks at Sailor Moon, or more likely, the girl who only looks like Sailor Moon.

"Cut it out already! You're not fooling us." Lita again. "Come on guys, you're not buying into this, are you?"

"Of *course* we aren't." Raye speaks up.

"And you really believe that matters, Raye?" 'Serena' quirks a smile that is eerily Serena like. "It's not like I came back here to invite you all to the mall with me, you know."

For just a second, Raye has to stop herself from reacting to this Serena like she would the real one and verbally letting her have it for being a brat.

"Why *have* you come here?" Amara asks cautiously.

"And if who you are isn't, what *is* important?" Michelle adds.

Serena smiles to them and then looks towards Trista. "My daughter. I came here for my daughter."

Amy finishes her scans. "Except, you're not really here at all, are you? This is all just an illusion. You. The Sky?"

"Caught me." 'Serena' smiles and abruptly the wind stops, the clouds vanish, the sky turns sunny again. "I was just trying to make an impression. Always the clever one of the bunch, aren't you Amy? I was always a little jealous."

"Will you cut it out already? Whoever you are... this isn't funny." Mina speaks out.

"No, you're right. It's not, is it? And I didn't mean for it to come off like it was. I have to admit." She looks at Trista again. "I'm not quite myself yet. I don't want to cause any of you pain. Do I, Trista? I never have. Just like, you never wanted to do what you've done to me... to our friends? Your family? It's alright, you thought you were doing the right thing. I understand."

Trista just stands there, silent, only her eyes betraying her emotions.

"Well *I* don't understand." Lita says. "I mean, you say you're on our side. How can you expect us to believe something like that with what you've done? Where's Serena? What have done to her?"

"I told you, Lita, I'm right here. Or close enough anyway." She smiles over to Lita.

"You're talking in circles!" Raye says.

"Maybe so, Raye. But the only one I really want to understand, understands me perfectly. Right, daughter? If you want to know who I am, what I'm up to. Just ask her. But what will she say? That's what I want to know. I know you're still my daughter, but am I still your mother, Trista? Am I? Will you come home with me at least, so we can talk? We're family after all... family should at least be able to talk to one another..."

Trista doesn't take her eyes from her mother. And it is her mother, even through Serena's eyes, it is her. She wasn't really prepared for what it felt like to see her again, even and maybe especially in the way she was seeing her now. She hadn't realized... A single tear fell from one eye and she bowed her head, a few more tears finding their way out.

"Trista?" Hotaru steps closer to her friend and takes her hand.

Trista looks down at Hotaru and smiles faintly to her. She looks to her mother then. "No."

"No?" Her mother asks.

"No. I'm not going to go with you. I'm not listening to you, even though a... a part of me badly wants to. You have to stop, mother. You can't do this. Not again. It can't happen. Don't you see that? What you want? You can't make that simply be. While you've been... gone... I've seen much more of the world. Much more of time... We have to earn paradise. Every day. All of us. One person can't do that for everyone else. Not even you." As Trista speaks, her eyes gain more confidence and conviction.

'Serena's' eyes widen a little and she smiles. "You've changed." She says. "But you're a hypocrite. You truly are. And you don't even see it, do you?" Her eyes grow harder. "You used to believe in me. Trust in me. Then, when I wasn't good enough, perfect enough - when I had to make some hard choices - you just gave up." She turns her back and looks off into the distance. "And you followed someone else. Serenity then, and Serena now. Because why? Because it's easier? Because you don't have to really do anything? Really help anyone? You say you don't believe one person can bring paradise for everyone else, but you follow Sailor Moon? You follow who she will be? You believe in her. You believe she can and I can't. Because I let you down. Or at least you think I did. Well she's right here in front of you, dear. I'm her now, she's me. How will you handle that? You think you know what's best. But how many times while I've been 'away' have you just stood there and watched when you had the power to change it? To change anything you wanted to? Help anyone you wanted? You wrap yourself in nobility, but the truth is..." She turns back and meets Trista's eyes again. "I raised a daughter who's a coward."

Trista's eyes are wide now, it's apparent she can't quite believe what she's hearing.

"Stop it!" Hotaru cries and raises her Silence Glaive - a blast of dark, crackling energy hitting the image of Sailor Moon and disappearing inside her... doing nothing.

'Serena' smiles. "But I won't stop, little one. Your 'sister' knows I won't." She raises a hand out in front of her towards Hotaru and closes it into a fist. Energy swells around the youngest Sailor and she just seems to crumple and fall to the ground, dropping her weapon. Not hurt, just... drained. "Come with me, daughter. And I'll stop." She smiles to Trista, not so nicely this time.

-"World Shaking!"-

-"Venus Love Chain, Encircle!"-

-"Neptune Deep Submerge!"-

-"Jupiter Thunder, Crash!"-

Amara, Mina, Michelle, and Lita all try to attack the apparition, but only Venus's attack seems to do anything. Holding Serena's image in place with a strangely violet tinted gold chain, stopping whatever she was doing to Hotaru (who is able to stand at least, with the help of Trista). The other attacks disappear inside her with no effect, just like Hotaru's before.

"Nicely done, daughter." Their adversary smiles. "I see Amy isn't the only one who's crafty in the bunch." She says, recognizing that her daughter added some of her own power to Mina's attack. "Somehow though, I'm not as envious of you... maybe because you hide it so well?" 'Serena' vanishes out of the Love Chain and reappears behind Mina, laying her hand on Mina's head. Mina gasps as a dark purple energy crashes through her and she falls, unable to stand.

"Serena, snap out of it already!" A crying Molly finally cries out. "You can't let her beat you like this! She's hurting your friends, you have to come back..."

'Serena' looks over at a now sobbing Molly and her eyes soften. She blinks out and appears over by Molly this time, kneeling down by her. "Hey, it's alright. I'm sorry I scared you Molly. I'm sorry, really I am."

"Stay away from her!" Raye goes over and tries to grab 'Serena's' shoulder, but her hand just passes though.

Trista's mother stands up and looks at all of them. "Don't try to stop me. Ask her, ask your friend, Trista. I'm doing this for you." She blasts Raye with the same kind of energy she's used before and then kneels down and takes Molly's hand. "Come on Molly, I'm taking you away from here. You'll be safe with me." She looks over her shoulder with something like scorn at her daughter. "One way or another, Trista." She says and disappears with Molly, Luna jumping stealthily onto Molly's shoulder to go along for the ride. "One way or another." The words repeat once more in the air as if an echo.

"...Luna... She... did you guys see?" Lita turns to the others.

"Yes." Amy says. "I think... She must have had her reasons. Our number one priority now, is finding a way to get them back."

"Trista..." Michelle walks over to the Sailor from Pluto who's kneeling down next to Hotaru to pick up her fallen Silence Glaive.

Trista looks up, closes her eyes and then opens them while she stands up, completing her task and handing the glaive to her friend who accepts it gratefully to lean on. She then looks to Michelle, Amara standing right behind her, and the Sailors who are now all looking to her as well.

"I suppose at last I should tell you the story. My story. And my mother's." She says.

"I think you have to." Amara says.

"I think we all would really like to hear it." Amy says.

Trista nods and walks over and picks up a fallen chair and sits. Raye helps Mina to a chair as well, then takes one herself, feeling tired and kind of lost. Stunned really. Michelle takes a chair as well, and Amara guides Hotaru to one. Artemis sits in Mina's lap. Amy, Amara, and Lita remain standing, but they've all gathered in a circle.

"Poor Molly..." Mina says. "I hope she's okay..."

"Luna will do her best for her." Artemis says with forced belief, worry evident in his voice anyway.

"Go ahead, Trista." Michelle encourages her, laying her hand momentarily over her friend's.

Trista smiles faintly to Michelle and Amara, her housemates and friends.

"Just start from the beginning." Amy adds.

Trista sighs. "The beginning would be my mother, whom you've just met. Her name is Suzu of Endless. She was a great friend to Serena's future self, Neo Queen Serenity, once. In my time, my original time. Your future yet to come. She helped Queen Serenity lock away the Dark Moon Kingdom the first time, and, originally, or what I assume is originally, she stopped their retribution from spilling back in time to find you. In the time line I was born to, Small Lady was never lost, the Wise Man destroyed before he could become such a dire threat, thanks to my mother adding her powers to our queen's. I witnessed the final battle myself. I remember thinking, feeling... very, very proud of her then. In my eyes then, as a girl, it seemed she could do anything." She pauses and it seems as though she is lost in thought, or memories.

"What changed?" Lita asks.

"Something went wrong, I suppose..." Trista replies vaguely. "Something usually does." She says, sounding distant. "My mother saw the destruction and sadness that the wars with the Dark Moon caused. Many died. Many suffered loss. Great loss... And there she was, my mother, having the power to change all that. To change time, redirect it, bend it - to a certain extent, to change the rules all together... her goal was to make the world a paradise for all time by stopping the darkness before it could threaten us again, whenever and wherever it manifested. She hoped that by doing that, she would even destroy the darkness itself. By attrition. By denying it a way to act on us and thereby starving it, letting it whither away, lost to us, and us to it."

"She's actually that powerful?" Michelle asks, clearly concerned.

"Perhaps she is. As her daughter, perhaps I am as well..." Trista admits, thinking back to what her mother had said about her own inaction. "But neither is she perfect. And neither is time a passive landscape upon which ones like us are free to create what we wish. My grandfather may not chose to act against her, but that does not change the fact that there are costs for everything. Choices. And a choice is always a sacrifice. Many paths in trade for only one path and no choice but to make a choice. What to sacrifice, what to keep. Most people only have the option to choose the moment right in front of them. However, what if you could choose any moment? What if, when you saw a result you didn't care for, you could simply go back and make a different choice, a different sacrifice? What if you could create new choices wherever you wanted? Have a chance to undo any regret? Stop anything you wanted from going wrong? Could you resist so easily?" She looks from one face to another.

"I don't think anyone could. Not easily at least." Artemis says in his rarely seen 'wise kitty' mode.

"I guess your mom didn't, huh?" Mina says, caught up in the story.

"No, she didn't... and that meant that she started making more and more choices, more sacrifices. Can you imagine the guilt and responsibility of that? To know that the choices you were making could wipe out entire peoples if you chose incorrectly? ...Is it any wonder I've chosen not to make choices like that?" Trista says in almost a whisper.

Hotaru gets up and goes over to Trista to put her hand on Trista's. She doesn't say anything, but when Trista meets her eyes, she seems to understand and that understanding seems to lift a weight from her shoulders some.

Trista pats Hotaru's hand and closes her eyes and nods slightly in thanks. Hotaru sitting down on the ground by her friend after that as Trista keeps talking. "She ended up starting a war, I suppose. Serenity couldn't stand by and let what was happening, happen. In the end, I had to chose. I chose to oppose my mother, and help lock her away... in a prison made of time."

"How did she get free then?" Lita asks helpfully.

Trista doesn't answer, she looks at the sky and closes her eyes. When she opens them, she sees the sky turn dark again, clouds and dark energy and wind, just like before, but real. "Anatolle." Trista says under her breath.

A woman appears from the center of the rolling, rumbling storm. She shines and is hard to look at. Sky and sun seeming to shine out from her clothing - an ornate Asian style gown. She speaks. "You know why I have come..." And her words are like a crashing wave of thunder that freezes Trista's heart for a moment. Trista, with effort, meets her former friend's eyes. They are not angry eyes, just resigned and kind of haunted in a way Trista knows very well. Haunted by a past she wishes to change.

"Anatolle, please... I know why you follow my mother. Better than anyone, I know why. But please, as hard as it is, what you want isn't possible. Not with a cost your good heart can live with." Trista pleads, making sure with her powers that her voice, soft though it is, carries to her old friend's ears.

Their eyes meet, and both remember... a past long since lost to the memories of most others.

—-

scene switch to a time in Trista's past

—-

There is silence on this balcony on this night in Neo Tokyo, far in the future. The night is clear and silent except for the sounds of birds. A younger Trista had been searching, and as she steps out onto the balcony, into the night air, she finds who she's been searching for. "Anatolle?" She speaks.

Her best friend turns to meet her eyes, but doesn't answer in words. Instead she, after a moment, turns back to look out at the sky.

Trista looks at her and for a long moment she isn't sure what to do, how to approach her. She then decides the best idea is simply to do that, approach and wait. She walks over to Anatolle's side and looks over to her. Anatolle looks back and then back out at the darkening sky. Trista looks out at that sky too and tries to imagine what her friend sees there. They both stand there, leaning against the balcony rails for a time, until finally Anatolle speaks. "I miss him." Is all she says.

"...This was the last place you were together." Trista supplies.

Anatolle nods 'yes' a little. "I remember, the night was unseasonably warm... there was a breeze. Not like it is now, now there's a chill in the air... almost like the night knows my mood."

"Your mood will change, in time." Trista offers the only words she knows that might give comfort.

"...Always truthful and tactless, that's you, Trista." She says in a subdued voice. "That's why you're practically the only one I can stand to be around these days I think." She says.

Trista laughs just a little and Anatolle gives her a weak smile in return then sighs. "I wonder if I'll ever be happy again though. Like we were then... happiness like that, maybe you don't get that more than once in any life..."

—-

scene switch

—-

The scene shifts and instead of Trista, Anatolle is looking into the eyes of her fiancé, a fairly radiant smile coming to her lips. "What did I do deserve a smile like that?" Arion asks.

"I don't know." Anatolle replies. "I guess you just did." She stops leaning on the railing and goes closer to him and they kiss a slow and tender kiss.

"Can you believe, in a week we'll be married?" Anatolle says.

"And it's all like some big wonderful dream you hope you'll never wake up from?" Arion replies with a smile.

"Full of yourself, aren't you?" She teases him back. "I suppose it's justified though, we are a dream together... come to bed with me?"

"You have to ask?" Arion smiles to her and lets her lead him off the balcony to their bed chambers.

The next thing seen, Anatolle sits on the edge of her bed in her undergarments. She watches a shirtless Arion get his uniform shirt from the closet. "It's truly a war then." She says, looking down at her hands.

"I'm afraid so." Arion says as he puts on his shirt and begins to fasten it up. "All of us with power to fight, we have to be strong or the others." He says.

She looks at him and smiles. "Brave and noble in the face of war too. I knew I chose correctly when I chose you." She says meaningfully, going over to him and taking his lips up in a kiss. She stands back and fastens the last of his shirt clasps and brings him his jacket. "What city sector are you assigned to?" She asks.

"Venus." He replies. "And you?"

"Mercury." She replies, touching his face lightly. "Be safe. Be brave, but be safe." She tells him.

"You as much as me." He says back, kissing her and then turning to leave.

She watches him go silently, a lone tear escaping her eye. She wipes it away and summons her battle garb with magic and strides out after him, accelerating into a run as she hears the sounds of battle in the air. She runs into her friend, Banshu on the way to her assembly point. Guardian Mercury is there waiting for them with two others. The five of them had trained for something like this many times. Always vigilant, that was the job of a guardian and her solders. Her duty, her responsibility.

"Plan two, everyone." Mercury tells them. "And watch out for each other." She meets each of them eyes to eyes. "Stay safe." She says, unintentionally echoing Anatolle herself, as she turns and jumps high into the sky. The two others heading off together.

Anatolle looks up at the sky filled with dark crystal ships and Dark Moon solders. She looks over to Banshu and nods. "Our turn." Banshu smiles to her confidently. She carries her friend up into the sky and throws her with her powers at one of the Dark moon solders. She sees the release of energy as Banshu elegantly destroys him before he can do anything against her and knows her friend will land safely and continue the fight. Her enemies will be lucky if they even see her coming. Anatolle looks and above her and sees three dark crystal ships, one bigger than the other two, hurtling towards her to attack her. Her eyes narrow and thunder breaks around her as light and sky begin to shine from within her body. "You will not pass." Her voice booms out to them in defiance.

— scene break —

The scene shifts to Arion on the streets of the city, people fleeing for shelter all around as they are being attacked by Dark Moon soldiers. One, a woman with lightning powers like Arion's, is forming a giant ball of dark blue lightning to throw at a building that has a lot of people in it. There is a family on the steps, they've stopped to help their young son who has hurt his leg. "No! Stop!" Arion cries. He has his current adversary, Rubius, at a momentary disadvantage, and brakes out at a run to get between the lightning attack and the family and the building. He doesn't have time to use his own power to cancel the attack, he just has to take the attack himself. He does, and he cries out in pain as he falls to his knees and fights to not let the dark energy overtake him. Angry at what the enemy soldier had tried to do, he gets up and uses his most powerful attack on the woman. It destroys her, but when he looks behind him to see if the family is alright, he is stabbed in the back with a ruby colored crystal spear by Rubius.

"So noble. So pitiful. So weak!" Rubius gloats.

-"Venus love arrows, strike!"- the attack is sounded and a volley of golden arrows strike Rubius down. Sailor Venus lands on the ground yards away, having jumped from the top of a building when she'd heard Arion's cry of 'no' earlier. Rubius struggles not to collapse as Venus rushes over to her fallen comrade, Arion. She gets to his side in almost no time, but it is too late, he is gone. She hears Rubius laugh. "There's no worse kind of coward than you." She says as she turns on him in anger.

"You're... right about that..." He says and disappears in dark shadow in front of her. Venus calls out another attack against him, but it is too late, he is gone before the Love Chain hits, blowing apart the road where he'd lain.

— scene break —

The scene shifts again, Anatolle weeping on a bench, Banshu and Mercury holding her from either side. "He was a hero." Venus says, standing before them, feeling a little guilty that she hadn't gotten there sooner or been able to really avenge Arion's murder.

"I'll kill them all." Anatolle says bitterly to herself as a younger Trista walks into the room and stops in her tracks hearing those words and seeing the scene before her.

—-

scene switch

—-

Back on the balcony, Trista looks at her friend. "We've known each other a long time Anatolle... I've always thought there was very little you couldn't do if you put your heart into it." She tells her.

Anatolle looks over to her and gives her another faint smile before looking back into the night. "Maybe..." Is all she says.

—-

scene switch, back in the present

—-

"You're wrong, Trista. I've cast my fortunes to this destiny, I won't turn away... please, don't make this harder than it has to be?" Anatolle speaks, her words oddly soft sounding, though they boom like thunder so much that they are hard to listen to.

"I can not." Trista says, keeping her eyes locked with Anatolle's and raising her Garnet Rod before her in a defensive stance.

Anatolle closes her eyes and speaks softly. "So be it then." And she calls down lightning bolts directed at all of the Sailor Scouts at once.

They all dodge them except Mina, who is struck and cries out as she falls. The others rushing to her aid or attacking Anatolle back. Lita and Amara's attacks, one lightning the other shaking the air, seem to have the most effect. Amy and Michelle's attacks seem to not affect her. Raye and Hotaru are protecting Mina and Artemis.

For Trista, she's staying ahead of the brunt of Anatolle's attacks, and realizing with foreboding that she'll have to counter attack soon, or the others weren't going to last long. It's then that - just a spilt second before - she senses it. Familiar hands grab her wrists from behind, and she drops her Garnet Rod in surprise. She recognizes the presence behind her. "Hello Tristan." She greets her brother.

"Hello sister." He says bitterly, trying to form a time rift around them to drag her away, back to their mother.

She resists and sends a disruption effect through his body to make him stop. He cries out in pain and throws her to the ground. She looks up at him, reaching over to take up her rod again. He's just like she remembers him. As tall as her. Hair almost as long. Handsome. They very much look brother and sister. Except that his face is a mix of hurt, betrayal, and anger. At her. Just like the last time she'd seen him so long ago as she'd sealed him away with the rest. It had been a look that had haunted her over the long years. Seeing it again now was no less painful than the first time.

"Going to lock me away again, sister?" He smiles to her that fair, peaceful smile he had. "It won't be so easy this time, I'm afraid."

They both call out their attacks at the same time - "Eternia Tempest!" -, - "Storms of Endless!" - and the attacks collide in mid air, throwing them both back and creating a vortex of unstable time. Trista stands up and runs towards it, thrusting the end of her time staff right into the middle of it. A blinding wave of pale violet light flashes out, turning the clearing and the sky almost pure white.

—-

scene switch

—-

The scene opens with Darien and Akilah being thrown skidding across the ground by a wave of time distorting energy sent at them by Zamid. They are separated by several yards now, and Akilah looks over and sees her brother hit with a ball of dark energy. "Darien!" She cries out to him. He tries to block it with his cane, but the cane breaks and it gets to him and makes him cry out in pain and collapse. The energy expands out of him and lifts him, barely conscious, up off the ground in a time sphere prison.

"You next, little pest." Zamid says, rather indifferently as he almost carelessly throws one of the black energy spheres at her now.

She sees it in time and is quick enough to dodge, but the sphere doesn't move naturally, it turns too quickly and she sees that it's about to hit her and her mind in that second really wants to be someplace else. With her family. Safe. No people with desolate souls and dark powers around to ruin it all.

And just so, somehow, as in a miracle, the world shimmers and changes. Fades and is replaced. It takes her a second to realize, but she is standing on hard granite stone bordered by a waist-high, pillared balcony rail of that same intuitively familiar hard granite stone... granite stone that came from *Earth*. Looking out over a city on *Earth*. The one she and her family had lived in. The capitol. Atlantis.

She is home.

"Sprout? Is that you out there?" A cheerful and familiar voice calls from inside the residence.

"Darien?" She says to herself, turning to go inside and seeing her brother just like she remembers him from before the attacks. A smile on his face and not a care in the world, well, not unless you counted the matter of a certain princess from the Moon Kingdom that she knew had captured her brother's heart completely not so long ago in the time she was now in.

"Hey. Weren't you going to go to that Kuduku performance with your friends? You were talking about it all week." He says, searching around for something.

"Huh? Oh, um, right. Changed my mind. Thought I'd... just, go for a walk instead. Yeah. That's it." She looks around and tries to act natural.

"A walk, huh?" Darien asks, kind of doubting that was all there was to it.

"Right. Can't a girl just want to get back in touch with nature for a while?" She asks, not able to help from smiling despite how ridiculous she knew she must be sounding.

"Nature, right. Hey, wasn't that Kuduku performance out in a field or something? With trees and rocks and all that other nature stuff around?" He asks, leaning against the wall.

"Only if you want to get technical about it." She laughs at herself.

"Right, so, what? Have a fight with your friends again? Or, wait, let me guess, does this have something to do with that little punk, Kaliden?" Darien asks, looking around the room again as if he can't find something.

"Kaly is not a little punk." Akilah defends.

"What, the fight thing then?" Darien asks.

"Yeah, you guessed it. Us silly teenage girls and our friend fights. You really are too smart for me, Darien." She teases.

"Mm, I always did suspect that was the case." He says, looking under a pillow.

"What *are* you looking for anyway? You didn't lose that locket Serena gave you, did you? Hopeless..." She says.

"You wound me, Sprout. Really. No, I didn't lose the locket. Come on, what sort of a boyfriend do you think I am?" He defends.

Akilah laughs. "Well, you've got a point. If you lost the locket, you'd look way more ridiculous than this tearing things up looking for it. Serena has you so wrapped up in her, you'd fly to the moon all by yourself if she asked you to, wouldn't you? Isn't love beautiful?" She singsongs, forgetting for a moment everything but that she is happy and with her family again.

"Just wait until it happens to you." He rubs the top of her head, despite his little sister's mock protests. "We'll see who laughs loudest then, won't we?"

"Oh, won't we just." Akilah throws a pillow at his head.

Darien catches it and shakes his head. "What's gotten into you today? I can't place it, but you seem different..." He says, turning to look at her in the eyes.

"Mmwhat do you mean, different? Who? Different? No, not me? Same old Sprout, nothing added." She says.

"Alright, now I know something's going on. You'd eat dirt before you called yourself 'Sprout' voluntarily." He accuses.

Akilah sighs. "Forgot about that." She admits.

"Want to tell me what's going on?" He asks.

"Forgot also just how perceptive a big brother I always had too, I guess." She says.

He narrows his eyes and looks at her. "Yeah, well, you're going to have to help me out with the specifics." He says a bit cautiously.

"Short and tall of it? I'm from the future and my past... present self probably *is* out with her friends at Kuduku in the grand park." She confesses.

Darien regards her critically for a moment. "Well, it must be true then. There's no way you're an imposter anyway, you're far too goofy to be anyone else but a Sprout head little sister of mine."

"Whatever you say, Top Hat." Akilah teases back.

"Top Hat?" Darien asks.

"You'll get the joke in a few thousand years." She tells him.

"...A few... thousand years... you say...?" He asks.

"So, maybe I'm a little older than I look. It gets hard to tell for sure. It's not like I exactly had a clock or anything." She throws up her hands and walks over to sit on a stool.

He looks her in the eyes, squinting, and studies what he sees there intensely. He sees... wisdom, or something like it maybe. At least someone who's more sure of herself than any teenage younger sibling has a right to be around her older brother. "Wow." He shakes his head. "A you that's older than me. That's going to take some getting used to."

"Right, like, what, a few minutes?" She asks. "You're about the most easy going person ever and you know it."

He smiles at her. "Just don't tell the younger you that... I'd never hear the end of it." He laughs.

"My lips are sealed." She promises, getting to her feet again. "Besides, meeting younger me? I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet. Even if I am way older than you now." She says, kind of getting a kick out of that idea for some reason. "What *were* you looking for anyway? If it wasn't the locket..."

"Oh! Right. My library crystal. Hermes'll throw a cat tantrum if I'm late with my essay again." He admits.

Akilah laughs. "Well, okay... lets just see about that." She closes her eyes experimentally and then opens them and looks around. She sees a light sparkling on the floor by a table in the corner. "Look over there in the corner on the floor by the table." She says helpfully.

He goes over and looks. "How'd you do that?" He asks from across the room as he bends over to pick up the errant crystal database.

She follows him to the other side of the room. "Oh, lets just say I had a lot of time to get good at spotting things from a distance and leave it at that, okay?" She smiles.

"Uh, yeah, alright..." He says, tucking the crystal library into his pocket for safe keeping.

"Want to go for a walk with me?" She asks hopefully.

He regards her ponderingly for a moment. "Alright, I've guess we could do that." He agrees.

"Alright then." She says and they head out the door.

A little time passes, the scene shifts ahead a little. Akilah and her brother are walking in the flower gardens in the central park. "Aren't roses the best flower ever?" Akilah asks her brother innocently.

He smiles. "They *are* beautiful." He admits, looking at the flower garden. "Serena loves them."

"Aw, love..." She says teasingly. "Nothing more common in song nor verse, nothing more rare or precocious in space nor tome." She repeats the old philosopher's axiom while looking over to her brother with a teasing smile. "Except when it comes to my charming big brother, of course. With him, all it takes is showing up at a ball and pow, true and *mythic* love! Not that it doesn't cost you of course." She sighs.

"...Cost me?" He asks watching his sister run off a few steps ahead of him and turn to face him, walking backwards for a step or two.

"The world hates a lover, Darien. That's what they'll tell you." She turns and keeps walking ahead of him.

Darien races to catch up. He grabs her by the arm lightly to get her to look towards him again. "You can't truly believe that, can you?"

Akilah smiles sadly. "Of course I don't, and you never would either, would you? When you love someone, you just have to fight harder than anyone else, that's all." She smiles to him. "And no one's braver in a fight than my brother. Serena's lucky."

Darien shakes his head and keeps walking with her. "Weird hearing you say something like that. Just last week, you were saying how you felt sorry for Serena 'cause she had to put up with me." He laughs.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." She says.

There's a pause in the conversation. Then Darien speaks. "So, future sister, wise and ancient as a really old crone, gonna tell me why you're here talking to me about my love life in your past?"

"...I ran away." She admits softly, ignoring the 'crone' jibe as the question is a serious one that deserves a real answer.

"From what?" Darien asks.

"Our father's murderer..." She admits. "His name is Zamid. I left you at his mercy... and I came here." Darien stops walking and so does Akilah after a pace or two. "I didn't mean to." She tells him sadly, turning and walking over to a bench to sit down.

Darien walks over to her and sits beside her. "I think you're going to need to explain a little more than that." He says.

She's silent for a moment and then she looks out into the familiar flower garden. So beautiful. She'd forgotten how good it felt to be around this much nature. "Not too long from now, there's going to be a war." Akilah starts. "A woman from the future will come and bring war to us. We will fight, but she will be too strong for us. Father will die in that war, and I will be lost in the time stream, the price I'll pay to save your life." She looks over to him. "It's a choice I'd make again if I had too." She says. "From there, I guess, I'll just drift through time for a really long while. Until you find me. Except when you do find me, you won't even remember who I am. You won't remember I ever existed."

"...How could... How could something like that happen?" Daren speaks.

"It just does. The world doesn't always make you fight to keep what you have. Sometimes it gives you a time out too. Fickle world." She laughs.

"But, after that..." Darien starts.

"After that we fall into another place and time, I see Zamid, I attack Zamid, Zamid is too strong, he beats us. He captures you, he's about to capture me, then... poof."

"Poof?" Darien asks.

"Poof. That's when you found me on the balcony. The attack was coming right at me. I wished I was back home before anything happened, and... here I am." Akilah says.

"But, how?" Darien asks.

"I guess all that time floating in time, maybe it did something to me? Or maybe time just felt sorry for me. Felt like, I don't know, like it owed me one?" She said.

"He." Daren corrected.

"He?" Akilah asks, looking over at Darien.

"I read about it." Daren says, taking the library crystal out from his coat. "Cronus. The king of time. It's an old legend, but Hermes told me it was true. That King Cronus watches over all of time from his castle in Endless, the city of forever at the heart of time. If anyone helped you, it was probably him."

She looks over at her brother. "Cronus..." She says the name out loud.

"I think my young student may just be right for once, my lady." A cat jumps down on the bench into Akilah's lap.

"Hermes!" Akilah picks him up and hugs the cat to her, overjoyed. "I haven't seen you in ages!" She says.

Hermes wriggles free and jumps onto Darien's shoulder for safety from the teenage girl's hugs. "Apparently!" He says, chagrinned.

"How come you never told me about any of this, Hermes? You were my teacher too, you know." She accuses her family's cat guardian.

"Hmph." Hermes huffs, jumping down to Darien's lap and starting to lick himself to straighten his fur that was mussed up by the over-enthusiastic Akilah. "I wasn't remiss, I'll have you know. It would have been included in your lessons next year, just as it was with your brother."

"My apologies then." Akilah says, knowing how much pride her old tutor had in his teaching acumen.

"Accepted." Hermes says in typical graceful fashion. "But now, to the issue at hand."

"You think Cronus saved me? Why? And why just me? Why not Darien too?" Akilah asks.

"Perhaps he did save you both." Hermes posits. "Perhaps he sent simply sent your brother elsewhere, else when. More likely, however, is that you have a roll to play, my lady. The time king would not act without a reason. Perhaps he needs you to complete some great task for him that only you can accomplish?"

"...Do you think?" She looks at Darien.

"Hey, sounds as likely as anything to me." Darien says.

"The question is, have you been given the ability of time travel outright, or will you need to wait until Cronus again decides to move you though time? The legends do speak of people unto whom he has given such a gift. But then, they also speak of instances in which he has interfered only in an instant. There would only be one way to discover which."

"...To wish to go back." Akilah says, understanding. "Back to where, when I was before I came here."

"Not necessarily precisely there." Hermes clarifies. "Perhaps it could be precisely anywhere?"

"Then... I guess..." She looks to Darien, remembering what state she left the future version of her brother in. She was responsible. She knows she has to save him. Even if it means leaving him, and her birth world again. "I have to go back, don't I?"

"You don't have to, Akilah." Darien speaks. "Not for my sake."

She smiles at him. "Of course I do."

—-

End Episode 3

—-


End file.
